The role of cellular chromatin modulators and DNA repair factors during the establishment and maintenance of gammaherpesvirus latency (C01)

• Subject Area: Virology
• Term: from 2010 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 158989968

The major viral latency protein LANA of Kaposi Sarcoma Herpesvirus (KSHV) mediates the replication of latent viral DNA genomes and their distribution to daughter cells. We have solved the molecular structure of the c-terminal domain of LANA in complex with the latent viral origin of replication and obtained evidence suggesting that cellular Brd/BET proteins localise LANA near cellular transcriptional start sites to control cellular transcription. We also found that cytoplasmic forms of LANA modulate innate immune responses. We want to build on these findings and investigate why LANA interacts with several DNA repair factors and how it transitions between diffuse distribution throughout the nucleus and nuclear microdomains that contain latent viral DNA.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 900: Chronic Infections: Microbial Persistence and its Control
• Applicant Institution: Medizinische Hochschule Hannover
• Project Head: Professor Dr. Thomas Schulz